Handwritten letter from Oswaldo Cruz (1914)
Handwritten letter from Oswaldo Cruz (1914)
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In 1914, doctor Oswaldo Cruz, a refugee in war-torn London, congratulates his mother on her birthday.
- Handwritten letter from Oswaldo Cruz to his mother.
- 4 pages.
- In Portuguese.
- 12.7 cm x 20 cm.
- London, October 22, 1914.
- Excellent condition of conservation.
- Unique piece.
My precious Mother,
This letter should reach you close to your birthday. It carries our warmest and most sincere wishes for your happiness and for the preservation of your precious health, our greatest treasure that we all guard with the greatest devotion. On that day, we were all at your side in spirit.
You are already wisely informed about what our life has been like here, through the letters from my doctor who writes I can inform you in greater [detail] and more skill than I can about what happens here every day (...).
Our return will depend on the development of matters concerning the war. The seas are not completely free and for this reason and more I say that, for the time being, England is the one who will lead us to remain further apart, unless there is a radical change in the fortunes of the other allies. In that case we will have to separate the way, unless we sign that we will return there.
London, despite the separation that opened it, is a sad city. Only leaves have begun to fall. The great false appearance is enveloped in dense gray fog. At night there is no lighting – a precaution against the Nephilim who are expected but have not come and I think never will (...).
Oswald
Known as the “Doctor of Brazil”, Oswaldo Cruz (1872 - 1917) graduated as a doctor at the age of twenty, already showing an interest in microbiology, which was gaining importance thanks to the studies carried out by the Frenchman Louis Pasteur.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Brazil experienced the end of the monarchy and slavery. Many people who had been living in the countryside moved to cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. With no basic sanitation and poor infrastructure, serious diseases (yellow fever, bubonic plague and smallpox) emerged. The President at the time asked for help from Oswaldo Cruz, who wrote a health code, including mandatory vaccination and educational pamphlets for the population and health professionals.
Despite the Vaccine Revolt, which occurred in 1904, Oswaldo Cruz achieved national and international recognition for creating an institute - still very active today - for research and teaching, in addition to producing vaccines and basic medicines for the needy population.
We have little information about Oswaldo Cruz's personal life. According to Brasiliana Itaú (page 542), "Oswaldo Cruz's letters are quite rare, which may be due to his relatively short life. Most of the letters that have become available to collectors are part of a family correspondence with his brother-in-law, the painter João Batista da Costa, which was dispersed some years ago."
Nara Azevedo and Ana Luce Girão Soares de Lima, researchers at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, really reinforce that the letter confirms some little documented biographical elements about Oswaldo Cruz.
The mother | There are very few letters from Oswaldo Cruz to his mother in his archive. According to Oswaldo Cruz's biographers, she was quite educated for the time, fluent in English and French. Her parents were teachers in the city of Petrópolis, which is close to Rio de Janeiro. Amália Bulhões Cruz taught her six children to read and write. From the records we have in the letters to his wife, we see that Oswaldo Cruz frequented the theater, opera, and various shows. He had a great demand for books, as we see in his correspondence with Paul Albanel, of the firm Albanel et fils., who also sent scientific equipment and material. Could we speculate that his cultural taste was influenced by his mother? The fact is that there are few references to her in the biographies and in his personal archive.
The disease | Reading the letter, the reference to the doctor (it's the woman) seems like a clue that the disease was already taking over the family's attention. As I mentioned, the disease intensified a few months later.
The trip to Europe | Oswaldo Cruz had been in France with his entire family since early July 1914. The purpose of the trip was to visit European research centers and take a relative to Switzerland for treatment. When France entered the war, he used his decoration as an Officer of the Légion d'honneur to obtain safe conduct and take his family to England, where he believed they would be safe from the bombings of German airplanes, which at that time were hitting Paris.
Financial difficulties | (...) the following address: 41. Queen's Garden. Lancaster Gate. London. W., (...) was a modest boarding house. In London the financial difficulties continued.
Stay in London | He visited Westminster Abbey with his wife. On another occasion, he visited the National Gallery in the company of Graça Aranha, a Brazilian poet and diplomat, whom he had probably met at the Brazilian Academy of Letters. Oswaldo Cruz stayed in London from the end of August 1914 until January 1915, and as far as we know, he did not carry out any scientific activities. He returned to Brazil alone and already quite ill, but had to leave his family there for fear of attacks on ships crossing the Atlantic.
Oswaldo Cruz is a great Brazilian personality. Letters from him rarely appear on the market, and this one has relevant content to better understand this historical figure.
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